Thursday, August 07, 2008

So far, so good!

I can only move at a rabbit's pace for so many days and then I "crash and burn". That was today! I didn't sleep last night because yesterday at lunch a friend, very graphically, was telling me about a family in the campo that uses two wheelbarrows to take their clothes to the river to wash them - even in the winter - and that they don't have coats. There are five or six children and the father is NOB. I couldn't get that image out of mind at 3AM this morning! They live in a lean-to "cartoneria" - a house made out of cardboard and assorted pieces of stuff that they find and I'm sure they have no electricity or anything - surely no running water - hence the river for laundry. So, the person who told me the story got the call from me this morning about HOW can we get a house built for them (around $1400) and about getting in touch with the people who build these houses. There is a program called Casita Linda and they are now building bigger houses, but they run about $6000 made out of adobe and we'll see how far down the list this mother and children would be.............I'll keep you posted about this.............
But, it had been a fun week up til I heard about the family at lunch yesterday. A friend is in town from Houston trying to decide, now that he is retired, if this is where he wants to be - sound familiar? It has been interesting to see San Miguel through his concerns..........he WAS a banker and he's VERY methodical...............needless to say - we're opposite.
Went to the Etched Glass Project at Zocalo Tuesday night and the glassware that is being made is very beautiful. After that we strolled down the street to a restaurant I used to go to a lot and ran into a zillion (literally) people I knew - well, at least 15 or 20. Does that count as a zillion? Good food - great views.
Yesterday was lunch with the "guy" who wrote Poltergeist, the Baretta TV series and a bunch of other things who is a "hoot" and the widow of a famous country singer who is a character too. The writer is married to the former backup singer for Jackson Browne and she is delightful.
My conservative banker friend did NOT know what to make of us..................we were NOT conservative. The writer gave me the first 100 pages of a novel that is being submitted and I hurriedly headed home and did nothing else but read something very, very funny - very, very descriptive - set in LA. I'll keep you posted on that too, when it gets a name and gets published, cause my friend has a name that the industry REALLY respects ..........and I bet the book gets turned into a movie.
So today has been a LONG nap, reading the instructions for this #@$&@ digital camera........that by the time I go to the Gueleguetza on Saturday I WANT to know how to use...............and that's it! I needed the rest and a day of no talking so I can be ready to be my scintillating self (ha) tomorrow night at the Pan American racer "do" and Saturday at the Gueleguetza deal with a bunch of friends.............then Sunday strutting down the streets of San Miguel with the Brass Synergy Quintet ought to be something that I HOPE I can get photos of also.
That's it from the mountains of San Miguel - where at 4PM it is 75 degrees - over and out!

3 comments:

Islagringo said...

Don't worry about perfection with your camera at first. Just set it for the auto default mode and start shooting. As you look at your pics, you can start fine tuning areas you don't like. Like increasing shutter speeds, ISO, that sort of thing. Just go for it!

picklesandroses.blogspot.com said...

Geez...I'm exhausted just reading this. Whew! Do take photos as I will never be able to get to all this in one week. And what is the G.....???? (can't spell it) think you are going to? another fiesta?

Babs said...

Ok Ok, I'm taking photos and I don't like any of them........geez and Velcro, the cat, got tired of me zooming in on her and went and slept somewhere else - pretty funny.
Kay, the Gueleguetza is held only in Oaxaca but with the unrest they are coming here to perform it! The costumes are like the painting in the guest house among others.......